(US) BMG Rights Management v. Vetter: Supreme Court Weighs Worldwide Copyright Termination (2026)

At its October 16, 2026 conference, the Supreme Court will consider whether to review BMG Rights Management (US) LLC v. Vetter, No. 25-1391. The petition challenges Vetter v. Resnik, No. 25-30108 (5th Cir. Jan. 12, 2026), which held that renewal and termination under the Copyright Act recaptured rights in the 1962 composition “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love)” throughout the world, not merely in the United States.

The decision presents a fundamental question of territoriality: whether U.S. law can determine ownership of foreign copyright interests. The Fifth Circuit treated the U.S. copyright as a single right recognized abroad and the dispute as one of ownership, not extraterritorial regulation of infringement. It declined to apply the presumption against extraterritoriality to ownership, assignment, and termination, a position in tension with Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd., 561 U.S. 247 (2010).

Petitioners rely on 17 U.S.C. § 304(c)(6)(E), which limits termination to rights arising under Title 17 and preserves rights arising under foreign laws. The Register of Copyrights told Congress in 1965 that the provision would leave foreign rights covered by the same contract untouched.

Respondents argue that, absent a circuit split, the question should percolate. They also rely on § 101’s definition of a transfer of copyright ownership and on Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley amp; Sons, Inc., 568 U.S. 519 (2013), to read “under this title” without a geographic limitation.

The Berne Convention creates no single worldwide copyright. Article 5(2) subjects the extent of protection to the law of the country where protection is claimed; whether it also governs ownership remains contested.

The Fifth Circuit’s premise is also difficult to reconcile with the Second Circuit’s recognition of distinct U.S. rights in foreign works in Corcovado Music Corp. v. Hollis Music, Inc., 981 F.2d 679 (2d Cir. 1993), and Ennio Morricone Music Inc. v. Bixio Music Group Ltd., 936 F.3d 69 (2d Cir. 2019).

Amici supporting review include the MPA, Paramount, the RIAA and NMPA, IFPI, and twenty IP professors. Music-industry amici report that songwriters are now serving supplemental termination notices asserting foreign rights.

The central doctrinal issue is whether the Fifth Circuit conflated the domestic source of a termination right with the territorial scope of the property interests it can affect.

For publishers, songwriters, and catalog acquirers, the stakes include catalog valuation, acquisition diligence, and termination settlements.